Capturing the cosmos: a documentary-maker’s guide to the galaxy

An idea forms

“The whole idea of the image came from my first visit in the Andes,” says Angel, who loves to blend reality and imagination through composite photography, requiring meticulous planning and challenging expeditions to remote, often harsh environments. “I saw how the stars aligned perfectly over the mountain range and the image started building in my mind. But I knew that I would not be able to do it justice, so I decided to go back the following year and do everything I could to get there.” Fortunately, as a prolific Nikon user, not to mention regular guest speaker, Angel, who rediscovered her childhood passion for photography during the 2020 pandemic, leaned into her existing relationship with the brand, which were only too happy to support the project.

Right time, right place

“The reason for this location is because it had all the elements that I enjoy capturing. Usually they’re on their own, but here they were all grouped in the same view,” says Angel when asked why this specific place. “So it has giant mountain peaks, snow, the lakes, which are usually very blue because it’s glacial water – everything I’m drawn to all in one 180° panorama. The second reason is that it’s such a physical, technical and mental challenge to get to this spot to take the picture, but it was a challenge I really wanted to undertake.

“The time of year was important, too, because in the Andes, you don’t have four seasons. There’s a dry and wet season. So we only had this certain window between May to September where there was more chance of getting clear skies without rain or snow, which would have made the hike more challenging.”

Building the blueprint

“The game is won in the draft,” says Angel, reflecting on the preparation involved. “I started planning in September just after I came back from my first visit. Then just over a month before leaving I spent all my time working out what I needed for the image itself, the list of the footage that I needed for the film, the script, sourcing the gear, testing all the equipment, plus a lot of physical training, because not only am I going up mountains but I’m also carrying a lot of equipment.”

Aiming to combat altitude sickness, which can render climbers virtually immobile when they ascend to high altitudes quickly, Angel dedicated an entire month to hiking and trekking, and underwent the necessary medical checks and preparations to limit the effects and maximise her chances of success. 

Destination Peru

In the middle of 2024, filming for the documentary got underway as Angel jetted off to South America. Accompanied by a team of local porters, guides and their mules, Angel and her friend, Ottilie Honoré, who helped as an assistant, made the long and arduous ascent over many days, camping in near freezing temperatures. Over the course of the next month and a half she captured every moment in 4K, relying solely on the Nikon Z6III paired with what Angel refers to as her “Astro lens” (the NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S) for wide-angle low-light and night scenes, and the versatile NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S for everything else. “The Nikon Z6III is very easy to carry and handle because it’s super compact and has a lot of great filming features that are very video directed,” she says. “The tilting screen was super useful for composing scenes and it handled low light very well. Plus, considering that it was around -10° degrees some nights, I didn’t have any problem with the camera freezing or the battery getting low. It was fantastic.”

The all-important picture

Despite facing several challenges, including Ottilie falling victim to altitude sickness, which left Angel alone to manage more tasks amid fatigue and a tight schedule, and unpredictable weather – which forced her to adjust her original vision, as the final image would require extra post-processing to work with the clouds covering the mountains – Angel persevered. But the hardships and adversities made the victory all the sweeter when she finally bagged the image she’d travelled so far to get. “I felt very emotional, very grateful, and such an immense feeling of relief, because the image was mine and secured, although there would still be a lot of work as the filming was not over,” she says.

Angel used the Nikon Z8 and NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S lens to capture eight vertical images of the mountain range and lake, while the Milky Way section was taken in 16 vertical images using an astro-modified Nikon Z6* and 20mm lens on a star tracker.  “Astro-modified cameras* have the sensor’s filter, which blocks infrared and parts of the visible spectrum, professionally removed. Without, it can capture a broader range of light, including the infrared and H-alpha (Ha) wavelengths, which contain all the details and colours of the night sky,” Angel explains. She advises aspiring night sky photographers to use lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 or wider, and to always double-check focus. “I don’t know how many times it happened to me that I thought I was in focus but must have nudged the ring so it was out of focus,” she says. “Also, make sure you have more photos than you actually need – not only of the scene, but higher up and more on the sides too, in case you want to stack it. That way you have more information to play with in post.”

Back home in the warm, Angel assembled the panorama by stitching together the RAW images of sky, landscape and herself using specialised software for astrophotography, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, with the finished scene also including two layered images of the photographer herself. “It’s my signature,” she explains. “It adds a sense of adventure, as well as a sense of scale. I wear the yellow jacket because I’ve loved yellow since I was a kid, and it’s opposite to blue on the colour wheel, so stands out.”

Finishing touches

While some on-site audio was captured in the mountains, Angel recorded most of the documentary’s narration later in a soundproof studio to ensure high-quality recording. And she showed another level of her creative flair by interspersing the film with seemingly separate affirmations that ultimately came together as a poem by the conclusion. “My audience is used to me accompanying my images with writing, and it was the perfect way to dissect the film,” she says.

Angel’s documentary The Shot Above, which features the stellar night landscape can be viewed on YouTube, and she credits Ottilie Honoré, Noé Bregnard, Prince Berkoh, and Rémy Brahier, among others, for their help in its completion. The documentary marks Angel’s second cinematic outing, with her first short film, In Pursuit of a Vision with filmmaker Rémy Brahier, recently winning third place at the Siena International Photo Awards.

Angel’s documentary dos and don’ts

1. Travel light

“There is no need for fancy accessories if you’re going out in the wilderness. It’s just going to be extra weight that you won’t need, and that’s going to make the filming more painful.”

2. Slow motion scenes are key

“The goal with the technique here is to creatively break the rhythm before going back into something more dynamic, with scenes such as water flowing, or scenes of contemplation. For slow motion, I record everything at 50fps.”

3. Lock the ISO and play with aperture

“The best ISO to film with for the minimum amount of noise and grain in the shadows is ISO 800, and for low-light footage go to the dual ISO being 6400. If I want to film at 50fps, I use 1/100 sec exposure time or, if it’s 25fps, then I use 1/50 sec. Those settings are locked in. Then it’s a case of playing with aperture and ND filters when there’s too much or not enough light.”

4. Filming nightscapes and low-light scenes

“For filming stars, it’s best to record a time lapse and, for something like the northern lights, you could film it directly if they are fast-moving. If there is something specific you want to film in low light, illuminate the subject with a torch to lock the focus first.”

5. Frame creatively

“Every scene should tell something in general – either a piece of the story or information or context. Film what you want to see. Imagine the camera is just an extension of your eyes.”

6. Preparation is everything

“Since I also had all the list of footage that was needed for the film, it was much, much easier to have a proper idea of when to film what. It helped me create a schedule for every trekking day – what we would do at what time, with what angle, if there was voice or not, if there was sound or not.”

Z6III video specs

• Camera: Nikon Z6III (primary filming camera)
• Lenses: NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S and NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S 
• Resolution: 4K
• Log profile: N-Log for colour grading
• ISO: ISO 800 and ISO 6400 (for low light)
• Frame rates and shutter speed: 50fps (shutter speed: 1/100) and 25fps (shutter speed: 1/50)

Angel Fux: How I got the shot

00:56: “This scene (above) shows me walking up the mountain, as I look so tiny with the huge mountains behind. I included this to show the scale of just how big and tall everything is, because it is hard to compute. The mountains are just so much higher and wider than what you see in the image. So we tried to show that right from the introduction.”

08:30: “This is the Milky Way, which was very important to get, because it’s central to the whole film. The footage is not a video clip per se, but a sequence of images that were taken over an hour and a half. To do this I used the interval timer mode on the Nikon Z8 on the star tracker. Doing it this way allows me to build it in post, where I can work on the RAW files individually, which you can’t do with camera-rendered time lapses. You just select the amount of time that you need for a certain number of seconds that you want as a video, and then let it run. It’s super useful and one of the features I use the most, whether it is for filming time lapses or when I have to put myself in the frame.”

12:12: “So this is where I put myself in the picture. You can see the location and start to get an idea of how the final image might look. One of the reasons I love this clip is that it was taken at the blue hour, where you just get the best light and the best colours. I used both the Nikon Z8 and the Nikon Z6III and went for a 4K Apple ProRes HQ N-Log so that I could do my colour grading afterwards, but the colours already looked amazing on camera with the Rec. 709 LUT before any tweaking.”

Z6III video specs

• Camera: Nikon Z6III (primary filming camera)
• Lenses: NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S and NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S 
• Resolution: 4K
• Log profile: N-Log for colour grading
• ISO: ISO 800 and ISO 6400 (for low light)
• Frame rates and shutter speed: 50fps (shutter speed: 1/100) and 25fps (shutter speed: 1/50)

Kitbag

Bodies

Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6III, Nikon Z6a (an astro-modified Nikon Z6*), Nikon Z30 vlogging kit

Lenses

NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S, NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S, NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S, NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S, NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S

Accessories 

Two drones, microphones, star tracker, various filters, camera cage, tripods, extra batteries

*For astro modifications, original cameras are modified by photographers via third parties at their own risk. Nikon accepts no liability for modifications made by third parties and such modifications immediately void warranty.